He translated operas and choral works to German, including compositions by Henry Barraud, Benjamin Britten, Alberto Ginastera, Zoltán Kodály, Bohuslav Martinů, Igor Strawinsky, Alexander Tcherepnin and William Walton.
Bohuslav Martinů | Bohuslav Brauner | Bohuslav Martinu | Bohuslav Karlík | Bohuslav Hasištejnský z Lobkovic | Bohuslav Balbín | Bohuslav |
She played the role of Madame Sans-Gêne by Victorien Sardou and Mirandolina by Bohuslav Martinu Other guest appearances have taken her to Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Sweden.
In the twentieth century, the concerto grosso has been used by composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Ernest Bloch, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Bohuslav Martinů, Malcolm Williamson, Henry Cowell, Alfred Schnittke, William Bolcom, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Andrei Eshpai, Eino Tamberg, Krzysztof Penderecki, Jean Françaix and Philip Glass.
In addition to performances of Czech composers, including Antonín Dvořák, Bedřich Smetana, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and Miloslav Kabeláč, Ančerl is also admired for his interpretations of 20th-century composers, such as Gustav Mahler, Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, as well as the Toronto-based organist/composer Healey Willan.
He studied composition with Kent Kennan at the University of Texas at Austin where he earned his bachelor’s in music degree in 1943, and with Bohuslav Martinů at the Tanglewood Music Center (summer 1946), and with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School of Music (master’s degree in music, 1947).
Kavina performs most of the classical theremin repertoire, including popular works for theremin by Bohuslav Martinů, Joseph Schillinger, and Spellbound by Miklos Rozsa, as well as Equatorial by Edgard Varèse and the lesser known Testament by Nicolas Obouchov.
The orchestra concentrates on playing Czech composers like Jan Dismas Zelenka, Johann Stamitz, František Václav Míča, Josef Mysliveček, Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák and Bohuslav Martinů including various genres starting from the baroque era up to contemporary works of the 20th century.
With the NBCOT she notably created the role of Agata in the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti's Maria Golovin at the Expo '58 in Brussels on August 20, 1958; later the same year she portrayed the role on Broadway. For the NBC, she also created the role of Arina in the premiere of Bohuslav Martinů's The Marriage.
An advocate of contemporary music, he conducted the premieres of Peter Mennin's Symphony No. 3 with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1947, Bohuslav Martinů's Piano Concerto No. 3 with Rudolf Firkušný and the Dallas Symphony in 1949, Villa-Lobos's Cello Concerto No. 2 with Aldo Parisot and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1954, and the American premiere of Kabalevsky's Requiem with students of the Eastman School in 1965.